Western Maryland Area Health Education Center
PSYCHOLOGY AND PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING CAUCUS
MINUTES
November 25, 2013
Allegany College of Maryland, CE Room #6– Cumberland, Maryland
CALL TO ORDER: Paul McCusker was not able to attend so Antoinette Wiseman chaired the
meeting in his absence. She called the meeting to order at 12:10 pm and asked everyone to review
the minutes from the August 26, 2013 meeting. After review, the minutes were approved as
written. The following individuals were present:
Christa Snyder
Anne Sheetz
Mike Motter
Joy Taylor
Antoinette Wiseman
REPORTS
Continuing Education
Christa Snyder gave the CE report and distributed 2 brochures on upcoming programs. One is
called “The Silent Sons and Perfect Daughters, Appreciating Gender Differences in Treatment and
Recovery” scheduled for March 10, 2014. The other brochure is “Keeping Poverty in Mind;
Creating Successful Experiences for Kids” scheduled for May 13, 2014. She also announced that she
has an “Anger Management” course scheduled on April 8, 2014, an “Ethics of Excellence” on May 5,
2014, which is an all-day program, and “The Diversity Training” co-sponsored with the Psych &
Professional Counseling Caucus scheduled for April 28, 2014. She also announced that the
“Problem Gambling” series will not able to be continued because of the unexpected death of the
instructor.
WMAHEC Board of Directors
Mike Motter gave the WMAHEC Board of Director’s report and announced that the meeting was
held on September 17, 2013 at the WMHS. He reported that the WMAHEC is in good financial shape
according to the recent audit findings. He also announced that Susan Stewart, WMAHEC Executive
Director, received the Outstanding Rural Health Achievement Award. Mike explained that there are
continued discussions regarding the reimbursement plan with the City of Cumberland. He also
distributed Psych & Professional Counseling Caucus brochures to attending board members.
Treasurer's Report
Antoinette Wiseman gave the Treasurer's Report and announced that the caucus has $1,611.00 in the
account, which is the same as last meeting. Joy announced that she made the purchase for the 2
DVD sets and the cost was $207.00. She did get a $30 discount, and that as soon as the lamination
and copies and binders were put together for the DVD sets, she would send an announcement out to
the listserv that they were available with the rental fees and rental requirements. There was
discussion that checks given for deposit only have a 6 month life and if someone held onto the DVD
set that long, we may not be able to cash the check.
OLD BUSINESS:
Update to Caucus Member list & Mailing List
There were no updates to the listserv and Antoinette Wiseman signed the PTF for today's boxed
lunches provided by ACM. There were 5 lunches at $8 each for a total of $40.
NEW BUSINESS:
2013 Mental Health Professional of the Year Update
Attending members reviewed the nomination criteria for the Mental Health Professional of the
Year based on the suggestions from the last meeting. There were a couple of changes. In the
opening paragraph, the second to the last sentence, it was suggested that we use a timeframe at
awardees being able to borrow the DVD/CE seminar sets at no charge. So Joy will add to that
sentence “Awardees will be able to borrow the Psychology and Professional Counseling Caucus
DVD/CE seminar sets at no charge for the next year”. An additional change was under
Preference is given for: #3 - change it from “be” to “being an active participant in the Caucus”
and #4 – change it from “serves” to “serving on a caucus committee”. Joy will make those
changes so that when we send out our nomination requests, they will be current.
National Mental Health Awareness Month
The topic of National Mental Health Awareness Month in May 2014 is tabled until next
February, 2014. Ideas for consideration would be to coordinate a proclamation by the County
Commissioners with the announcement that May is Mental Health Awareness Month as well as
do a newspaper interview or even an interview with our Mental Health Professional of the
Year.
September 19, 2014 CE Plans
There was discussion regarding the CE program that we are planning for September 19, 2014.
Paul had emailed Antoinette about being interested in having a big name person to do the
Personality Disorder unit but if we were paying for somebody to do that we may want them to
speak for the whole day, not just for 3 hours. Everyone agreed so Antoinette will let Paul
know that it is okay to pursue that change in CE planning and we can do the
“Psychopharmacology Update” program at another time. Anne suggested that we do the
business meeting at the lunch break so that everyone who is attending gets an idea of what the
Psych & Professional Counseling Caucus is about. It was recognized how appreciative we are
that Allegany College of Maryland tries to keep the CE registration price down and negotiates
as delicately as possible in getting the best fees from the speakers that they bring in.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Anne announced that she participated with Focus on the Future this year; she was at the
Wednesday session. She also was there with Kevin Peterson, who participated with Focus on
the Future as well. She also volunteered to work with Joy on a Mental Health Professional of the
Year nomination screening tool.
Christa Snyder agreed to get the caucus meeting room for the 2014 meetings. We will meet on
February 24, 2014; May 19, 2014 (which is a week early due to the Memorial Day holiday),
August 25, 2014, (we went ahead and scheduled a meeting even though we will be having
another meeting at our CE in September just in case we needed that August meeting for any last
minute CE planning; if we don’t need it, we can then cancel it) and then on November 24, 2014.
Antoinette will be leaving for Italy on May 15, 2014.
Antoinette adjourned the meeting at 1:00 pm.
Respectfully Submitted by Joy Taylor/Jackie Booth